i am in the market for a G4 ibook...the right choice?

M

MattinNashville

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i really want a PB but all i use it for is email, DVD, music (lots and lots) internet--

so i am thinking of leaning towards the ibook finacially

i want a 60 gbHD
but what ram do you reccomend...and airport too?

well i have never been a mac user but want one --am i looking to the right machine? thought i would ask the knowledgeable

thanks
 
iBook Hardware is excellent. I've a 600Mhz G3 iBook for 2.15 years now with 802.11b (Airport). Great form factor, peppy, jumping onto WiFi is easy, and my hardware has proven extremely reliable.

My only sadness is the space constrained internal 20GB drive. The bigger you can get it up front, the better your portable experience -- my 25GB iTunes Library is offloaded to a External Firewire Drive which limits my listening pleasure at times.

With G4, max RAM, max HD, Superdrive -- enough said -- go get it.
 
if you have the money max out the RAM
for 150 bucks it's def worth it for performance
yes with 60GB HD
def airport card, better to get it off the bat
than have to add it later

if your looking to do video editing or heavy
graphics work get a powerbook, otherwise
the ibook will work great, especially now
that it's a G4
 
Maxxing out the RAM is a good idea. A 512 mb extra RAM is around 100 - 150 $.

I assume you mean with dvds watching DVDs. If you need for burning DVDs, maybe PB is the choise for you.

Are you looking for the 12" or 14" model? Will it be your main machine? (and welcome on boards) :)
 
Giaguara said:
Maxxing out the RAM is a good idea. A 512 mb extra RAM is around 100 - 150 $.

I assume you mean with dvds watching DVDs. If you need for burning DVDs, maybe PB is the choise for you.

Are you looking for the 12" or 14" model? Will it be your main machine? (and welcome on boards) :)
Click to expand...

yeah, it will be my primary machine
and yes, watching DVD--no need to burn them...just music to burn

and the 12.1 is cheaper and seems a little more me :p

thanks for the help
 
Then the 12" sounds fine for you, and much more portable too. When do you plan on getting one? (Wait untill MWSF, 6th Jan .. who knows what new stuff there will be).
 
If you do run out of harddrive space, you can always get a firewire external drive. Very big, and faster too. The benefit to the new iBook is the G4 so if you need to, you should be able to use Final Cut Pro to a limited extent (not as much speed). I have an earlier iBook (iBook G3 800 384mb ram Combo Airport) and I really love it. I do get many comments such as "ohhh, a Powerbook, cool!" mainly because they don't look much different.

Joshua
 
If you do not need more than 640 megs of RAM the iBook is a great machine for the money. It's also very sturdy, probably sturdier than an aluminum Powerbook though I have nothing but my own observations to back that up.. I own an AlBook, fwiw.
 
I just got a 1 Ghz iBook G4, max ram, with AirPort and it's great. The 12 is 833 mhz with 40 gig hard drive standard (the 14 1 1Ghz comes with 60). It gets a little warmer than the 600 mhz G3 iBook I had, but the speed can be quickly noticed and the screen also looks a little brighter. Battery time seems good as well, but do max out the ram, it's well worth the price.
 
I just got my iBook G4 and I love it. I'm still running 256mb RAM because Apple screwed up thedelivery of my 512mb chip.

My mother just got the 1Ghz G4 iBook, and with the same RAM as me, I don't really notice a hell of a speed difference.

Mine still ldoes iMovie ok, it's great for photoshop. Unfortunately I was too impatient to wait for them to build me on ewith more than 30gb hard drive, but I suppose I might be able to pay Apple to upgrade it later.
 
Well, there are companies that can upgrade the HD while it is still under warranty. There are also those who have replaced the HD on their own... but it isn't nearly as easy in an iBook as the Powerbook G3 line from 1998-2000.

I personally would do this:

Max HD, make sure you are getting a combo drive (should be standard on the iBook G4 now), and buy a 512MB DIMM from Other World Computing at eshop.macsales.com

OWC has a lifetime warranty on all RAM you buy from them, and the RAM will be cheaper than most (but probably not all) places you can find that type of RAM. Even if you can find it cheaper, the lifetime warranty is worth it.
 
Go with the 12 inch. ;-) It's much smaller to carry around and the 14" doesn't give you more screen real estate as it has exactly the same resolution (1024*768). The 14" is for people with bad eye-sight who don't grasp the concept of sitting _closer_ to the computer. (I guess you'd have to sit 10 cm closer to the 12" to get the same view as with the 14" or so.)
 
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